Last weekend, organic farmers & growers from Yorkshire to Devon and Andalucia to Sicily gathered in Devon for Riverford’s biennial suppliers’ conference. These are the people who keep your boxes full and varied through the year; many
of them have done so for over 20 years, and for some, Riverford is their only customer. In the fields, over wine and food, we shared experiences and continued building the relationships and trust that have helped us resolve our differences amicably and weather the trials of drought, hail, the pandemic, and Brexit.
I’ve never believed that business must conform to the picture painted by The Apprentice or Succession – a bunch of psychopaths fighting it out for zero-sum gain, where there can be only winners and losers. For most businesses that produce something of real value and want to do so for the long term, more can be gained from co-operation and communication than from naked competition, where information is power and must be guarded at all costs, and brutality crushes honesty, compassion, and imagination. The latter model is such a waste of our extraordinary, collaborative human potential. It might work for trading shares but is a lousy way to buy the best carrots, grown with respect for nature and people.
Aristotle advised us to build relationships on pathos (empathy) and ethos (shared beliefs and values) before we can effectively get down to logos (the numbers). I wish I had learnt that lesson earlier in life, and not written off this uniquely human process as irritating small talk (a coach once advised me to “be gratuitously offensive less often”). After decades when my autistic brain rushed impatiently to the numbers, I have come to realise it’s the beautiful human relationships that count. Business can and should be about trust; indeed, good business depends on it.
At times I worry that the walls around our Riverford utopia are too high – that we should be referencing the market more in order to stay competitive – but memories of my last, dehumanising encounter with a supermarket buyer in 1991, contrast sharply with the empathy and joy of our suppliers’ gathering. It makes me all the prouder that we have shown that it is possible to do business in a better way. A way that is fair and sustainable – rooted in the empathy and cooperation that all strong communities are built on.
Our News from the Farm posts come from Riverford. They are the digital versions of the printed letters which go out to customers every week via Riverford’s veg boxes. Guy Singh-Watson’s weekly newsletters connect people to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical and business issues he feels strongly about.
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